Running Rampant
by Emjen Enla
Summary: **On Hiatus** A Separatist biochemist is commissioned by Count Dooku to create the ultimate bioweapon. Dooku plans to use this weapon to level the Republic and secure victory for the Sith. However, playing with diseases is like playing with fire. When the virus goes out of control both the Republic and the Separatists find themselves standing on the precipice of oblivion...
1. Dramatis Personae

**Title: Running Rampant**

 **Author: Emjen Enla/emjen_enla (wattpad username)**

 **Rating: low PG-13/low T**

 **Canon: Legends**

 **Timeline: After the Second Battle of Geonosis (SWTCW season 2)**

 **Dominant Characters: Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Padmé Amidala, Dooku, Rex, various OCs**

 **Pairings: Anidala, various OC/OC**

 **Warnings: Dooku actually acting like a Sith.**

 **Notes:**

 **1\. This story was originally posted on my Wattpad account starting during the summer of 2014. It is currently an ongoing work of 17+ chapters with over 3,900 reads. I plan to try to post a new chapter of this every week until I catch up with myself. If you can't wait until I post the next chapter you can go over to Wattpad to see the rest, my username there is emjen_enla.**

 **2\. This story contains the most OCs of any story I've posted on any site. I know some readers don't like OCs, if you're one of those people this probably isn't the story for you.**

 **3\. I'm going to post the Dramatis Personae (character list) and the prologue today (7/17/15). I will probably post Chapter 1 in the next couple days then I'll switch over to the every-week updates I was talking about earlier.**

 **4\. As with all my reposted stuff, this version may differ slightly from the one posted on Wattpad. (example: I removed some characters who turned out to be less important than I thought they would be from the Dramatis Personae before I posted it here.) These changes should be fairly minor and not affect the overall story.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.**

* * *

 _ **Dramatis Personae**_

Ahsoka Tano; Jedi Padawan (Togruta female)

Anakin Skywalker; Jedi Knight (human male)

Aycin Kollarri; Doctor (human male)

Barriss Offee; Jedi Padawan (Mirilian female)

Belora Morack; (human female)

Dooku/Darth Tyranus; Official Leader of the Separatist Movement/Dark Lord of the Sith (human male)

Jakari Varnu; Doctor (Pantoran female)

Karnia Neeka; Jedi Healer (human female)

Luminara Undulli; Jedi Master (Mirilian female)

Mace Windu; Jedi Master (human male)

Mitck Morack; (human male)

Morru Zoron; Separatist Biochemist (Arcona male)

Naxus "Nax" Mallu; Jedi Healer (Zabrak male)

Obi-Wan Kenobi; Jedi Master (human male)

Padmé Amidala; Senator from Naboo (human female)

Palpatine/Darth Sidious; Supreme Chancellor of the Republic/Dark Lord of the Sith (human male)

Rex; Clone Captain (Cloned human male)

Rian Lupan; Jedi Healer Padawan (Ryn male)

Rochell Serv'laya; (human female)

Sarrin Jenarian; (human female)

Sheeri Vallay; Separatist biochemist/Zoron's lab assistant (Togruta female)

Tryn Netzl; biochemist (human male)

Vokara Che; Head Jedi Healer (Twi'lek female)

Yasmyn Bry; (human female)

Yoda; Jedi Grand Master (nonhuman male)


	2. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

 _"Are you sure this is going to work?"_

 _"Of course it's going to work. You think Dooku would put anyone but the best on this job?"_

 _"I'm not saying you're not one of the most brilliant biochemists alive, I don't doubt you can make this. I'm doubting your ability to keep us safe from it."_

 _"You should have more faith, Sheeri, Dear. You're such a pessimist."_

 _"I didn't sign on to be killed by my own creation, Zoron"_

 _"It's_ my _creation. Don't delude yourself into thinking you're an equal partner in this game."_

 _"Thank goodness for that. I don't want to be killed by Dooku if this goes wrong."_

 _"If this goes wrong Dooku will kill both of us."_

 _"At least I have a shot at a quick death, you don't."_

 _"How am I supposed to keep up my spirits up when you keep saying such down-hearted things, my dear Sheeri?"_

 _"'Vallay' not 'my dear Sheeri,' I'm your lab assistant, not your girlfriend."_

 _"So you keep telling me. Go check on the lab rats..."_

 _"...Specimens 1 through 5 and 7 through 9 are still hanging on. Specimen 6 is dead."_

 _"What strain was it exposed to?"_

 _"Variant XZ4276."_

 _"How well has that strain done on the other tests?"_

 _"It's the only one that's passed every test, you know that."_

 _"So I do. Let me see the information we collected on that rat..."_

 _"...What do you think?"_

 _"It's perfect...Sheeri?"_

 _"Vallay."_

 _"Whatever. Contact Count Dooku. Tell him we've done it."_


	3. Chapter 1

_/Two weeks after Sheeri and Zoron achieved their goal./_

 _ **Chapter 1**_

 **Tyreea, Expansion Region**

"Incoming!" someone screamed.

Anakin Skywalker looked up in time to see the artillery shells screeching through the air towards them.

"Get down, Snips!" he shouted to his padawan, throwing himself to the pavement.

The artie shell hit the ground throwing up dust and rubble. Anakin could make the slender outline of his apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, lying on the ground a short distance away. She crawled over and pressed her mouth against his ear. "This isn't my first battle, Skyguy!" she yelled. "I know when to get down!"

"Are you trying to deafen me, Snips?" he shouted to her. "If you are by all means, keep yelling in my ear."

Ahsoka laughed. "If you're going to go deaf, Skyguy, it won't be because I yelled in your ear a couple times."

She had a point. Anakin flinched away and pressed his hands over his ears as another artie shell hit the ground a short distance away. He should probably invest in some proper ear protection, but then again, so should Ahsoka and every other Jedi in the galaxy.

"Rex!" he yelled motioning to get the clone captain's attention.

"Yessir?" Rex asked darting over and dropping to his stomach next to Anakin just as another shell blasted up the ground behind them.

"Do you have a lock on the cannons that are shooting those shells?" Anakin asked. "We need to get them out of commission or there's not going to be much left of our troops when Master Obi-Wan finally gets here."

Rex pointed at a sunlight bathed ridge in the distance. "We think they're up there, on that ridge. We can't blast them ourselves because General Kenobi the one with the heavy cannons. It's a good hour from here to that ridge on foot because of the jungle."

Anakin frowned up at the ridge. "Do you have an extra backpack of explosives I could borrow?"

"Yessir." Rex said. "What are you thinking? A small strike team sent to blow up the cannons?"

"Actually," Anakin said, "I was thinking just Ahsoka and me."

"Just the two of you?" Rex asked. "Isn't that a little dangerous?"

"Ahsoka and I can move faster than a strike team can." Anakin said. "Plus, the droids are unlikely to recognize two lifeforms running through the jungle as a threat."

Rex nodded and yelled something into his helmet comm telling one of the heavy weapons troopers to get a backpack of explosives. "What do you want us to do while you're gone?" he asked.

"Fall back out of range." Anakin ordered. "Then wait for explosions to light up the sky, that'll be the cannons going up in flames. Once that's taken care of and Obi-Wan gets here we push on to the capitol, wrap this up and go home."

Rex nodded. "Sounds like a good plan to me." he nodded his thanks to the trooper who came running up carrying the explosives backpack.

Anakin took the backpack and pulled it on. "Ready to run, Snips?" he asked turning to Ahsoka.

"Ready, Master." she chirped.

"Good." he said. "Let's get going. See you when this is over Rex."

Rex nodded. "And you, sir."

Anakin gave the clone a small smile and then ran.

It felt a little cowardly, running when his men are facing the fire but he was going to save them so it was forgivable.

Dust from another shell covered their entrance into the jungle. Ahsoka ran next to him, her body low, and her huge eyes wide. They ran side by side through the mess of trees and ferns until the sounds of the shells feel into the background.

Anakin slowed to a stop. "We can afford to catch our breath for a couple seconds." he said leaning again a tree.

Ahsoka leaned against another tree and cocked her head, listening to the distant sound of the shelling. "Do you think they'll be okay?"

"They must be pulling back by now." Anakin said. "They'll be fine...I hope."

They both looked back into the jungle in the direction they'd come. They'd lost so many men recently, the Seps had always been brutal but it was getting worse.

Anakin wiped the sweat off his face. The heat was bothering him. Granted, Tyreea was no warmer than Tatooine but the humidity made it feel a thousand times worse. On Tatooine your sweat evaporated almost before you knew it existed while on Tyreea you were constantly soaked.

 _Still it's better than a cold planet, like say, Hoth or Ilum._

Anakin straightened up. "Ready to keep moving, Snips?"

She nodded. "Always, Master."

* * *

They stuck to the trees for most of the trip. It was a bit slower than traveling on the bumpy roads the native Kyreeans had cut through the jungle, but it cut down on their chances of being discovered by a passing droid patrol.

Anakin knew they must be appearing on some droid's life-form scan but they probably just looked like two native predators on the move, not two Jedi coming to destroy heavy cannons.

Anakin laughed at the thought. They'd learn of their mistake soon enough.

* * *

The ridge rose up before them. Ahsoka leaned back, shading her eyes as she stared upwards. "How are we getting up there?"

Anakin smiled. She really should know by now. "We climb." he said.

She rolled her eyes. "Of course."

Anakin reached to his belt and pulled out a cable launcher. "We can use the cables until we're close to the top." he said. "Then we'll have to free climb it. Feeling up to it?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" she asked and aimed her cable launcher at the top of the ridge.

They started their assent, staying quiet and close to the ridge to keep out of sight of the droids. Anakin wiped sweat out of his eyes. He was thirsty, but there was no time to get out his water flask for a drink. Obi-Wan would be here in a matter of hours and these cannons had to be down by then, they had a schedule to keep.

They reached the end of their launcher cables. Carefully, Anakin grabbed hold of a vine then detached the cable from the ridge and stuffed it back into his belt. "Remember, Snips." he said. "Be cautious, even the slightest sound could alert the droids to our presence."

She rolled her eyes again. "I know that, Skyguy."

"Just making sure." he said and started to climb.

The wind whipped at his body, trying to throw him from the ridge and down into the jungle bellow. He glanced over his shoulder every few seconds to make sure Ahsoka was okay. He could tell this was annoying her, but there were certain things that automatically made him worry, almost-twelve-year-old padawans in dangerous situations were one of them.

That was went disaster stuck. He was just pulling himself into a large clump of vines when he heard the distinct sound of stones clattering down the ridge. He whirled around to see Ahsoka clinging to a ledge by her fingertips; apparently whatever foothold she'd chosen had given way.

There was no time to think the subject through anymore. They were about to be discovered. Anakin reached out with the Force and pulled Ahsoka off the ledge and into the cover of the vines. They huddled together hardly daring to breathe as battle droid voices sounded out from above them.

"What are you looking at? Get away from there in case you fall!"

"I thought I heard rocks falling."

"It's a ridge, of course there are rocks falling; get back to your post."

Anakin laughed silently. _Those clankers never get any smarter._

They waited in the cover of the vines until they were sure the droids had forgotten about them, then they resumed their climb.

"Do I even need to say it, Snips?" Anakin asked.

"I know." she said. "I'm a klutz."

"Good to know we're on the same page." Anakin said then stopped, they'd reached the top of the ridge. "Ready to give these clankers a surprise?"

Ahsoka pulled out her lightsaber. "Ready."

Anakin took a deep breath, gathering the Force around himself. "Let's go." he said and they leapt up onto the top of the ridge together.

The nearest battle droids only had time to screech out a startled "Jedi!" before they became heaps of spare parts. Anakin lifted his lightsaber and faced the rest of the droids on the ridge.

"You take the explosives, Snips." he ordered quickly sliding off the backpack. "I'll hold off the droids."

Ahsoka grabbed the backpack and darted off towards the cannons just as the droids opened fire. Anakin's lightsaber whirled in flashing arcs holding off the Separatist hordes as his padawan went about the business of sabotaging their weapons.

He fell into the Force, he wasn't even aware of the passage of time until Ahsoka's voice cut through the din.

"Ready, Master!"

"Good." Anakin Force-hurled the droids back and ran towards the edge of the ridge, Ahsoka was already there. They slid down the face until they reached the tangle of vines and then took cover. Ahsoka pulled out the detonator and slammed her thumb down on the button with cocky flourish.

The ridge above them lit up in flames.

Ahsoka laughed and put the detonator away. "Now what, Skyguy?" she asked. "Do you want to start trekking back through the jungle or make sure all the droids are dead first?"

Anakin reached to his belt, pulled out the water flask and took a long gulp, then he handed it over to Ahsoka. "Let's go up and survey the havoc we've wrought then we'll go back and join Rex."

Ahsoka took a drink from the flask and smiled at him. "Sounds good."

* * *

 **The connection between this battle and the scientists in the prologue will become apparent in the next chapter, which I plan to post next Saturday (but may post sooner if I get bored).**

 **Please fav/review/follow; tell me what you think. Constructive criticism is appreciated, hater comments are not. Comments like, "Ahsoka's fourteen in the Clone Wars movie, not eleven" do not count as constructive criticism. Please see my profile for an explanation as to why I'm writing her this age.**

 **Emjen**


	4. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

 **Chemistry Lab, Grand Hailik University, Hailik (capitol city of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

Sheeri Vallay struggled to ignore the screaming alarms sirens as she shoved every paper that might possibly be useful to the Republic into a briefcase.

They had to get going. When the Republic inevitably broke the capitol's defenses and brought the Separatist forces surrounding Hailik to their knees all record of the experiments done here had to be erased.

Unfortunately, her lovely superior didn't seem to be in so much of a hurry.

"Come on, Zoron!" she snapped turning to face the black-skinned Arcona. "We haven't got all day!"

Morru Zoron pretended he hadn't heard her. He was playing with one of the little vials containing the virus they'd concocted. The infected liquid was a stunning but cheery green color. Sheeri had found that strange at first, shouldn't something that deadly be red or black or even a sickly green? Why would one of the most deadly viruses in the known galaxy be a pretty color?

"Zoron!" she snapped. "Do you want to escape with our heads intact or don't you?"

Zoron turned to her. "We will escape with our heads intact, Sheeri dear."

"Enough with the 'dear Sheeri' stuff." she sighed. "Give that sample to the droids and help me clean up the lab."

"I think I'll hang onto it." Zoron said and slid the vial into one of the pockets of his lab scrubs.

Sheeri stared at him. "Are you mad? Why in the galaxy would you want a vial of that on your person?"

Zoron shrugged. "Don't sound so scared. It has to be ingested before you can be infected."

"I know that." Sheeri said. "But still-"

"Are you afraid of our creation, Sheeri?" Zoron asked his voice hissing quietly.

"Yes." Sheeri snapped. "It's deadly and I don't want to be killed by it. It's called self-preservation. Don't you have it?"

Zoron sighed. "I don't need self-preservation, I have intellect. Now get those papers put together, we're wasting time."

"That's what I was just saying." Sheeri muttered and turned back to her task.

* * *

The last order of business before fleeing the University and Tyreea was wiping the security cam footage of the Chemistry Labs, therefore obliterating any hard evidence of the three months Sheeri and Zoron had spent here working on the virus.

"I wish we'd had the time to run a couple more experiments." Sheeri said bending over the security cam station, orangeish-red fingers dancing over the controls. "We still don't know how the virus reacts when a large group is exposed."

"It will be fine." Zoron said. "We have enough information."

" _And_ you still haven't told Dooku about the problems we had tailoring the virus to its victims." She said as she turned around. Their reflections were visible in the glass behind them. Zoron had pulled a rich, blood-red cape on over his lab scrubs. His tall figure towered over her small, lithe one. His large, pupil-less eyes glowed luminously in a shade that was disturbingly like the virus's color. His black lips twisted in a confident smile.

"I'll tell Dooku when the correct moment arises." Zoron said. "Don't fret, Dear, he won't be angry. What we did will be much more effective than the original plan."

"Sure, it will." Sheeri frowned at her reflection, at the white V that decorated her forehead—pointy end stopping on the bridge of her nose between her eyes—, and the white lightning bolts marked her cheeks. Even at twenty-five she still had the body of a teenager, only her tall, delicately curved blue-and-white mortals showed she was an adult. "I'm just not sure if Dooku will agree."

Zoron shook his head, but said nothing.

She turned back to the control board to make sure the security systems had been wiped clean. "We should go." she said.

"Yes." Zoron said. "I want to take one last walk through the courtyard before we leave."

Sheeri turned around again to stare at him. "Are you crazy?"

Zoron smiled again. "Of course not, my dear Sheeri."

* * *

The courtyard of the Grand Hailik University was awash with rubble from when the Republic troops had been driven out. That was three months ago, when Sheeri and Zoron had started work on the virus. Now the Republic troops were back and it looked like they'd be the ones doing the driving out this time.

In the center of the courtyard there rose a single large fountain that had managed to survive the fighting. Water tumbled down its levels, cheery sounds half blocking out the ever nearing noise of battle. When Hailik had first fallen to the Separatists, the city's inhabitants had come to the fountain to get water to drink. The droids had eventually driven them away-there couldn't be even the smallest chance of someone realizing the University wasn't abandoned and snooping around to figure out what was going on. Now that the city was about to fall back into Republic hands people would probably start coming back here for water.

Zoron stalked gracefully over to the fountain and ran his fingers through the crystal liquid. "This is a beautiful fountain, isn't it, Sheeri dear?"

Sheeri didn't even bother telling him to call her Vallay. "That it is."

"The funny thing about beautiful things." Zoron muttered reaching into his pocket. "Is that no one ever wonders if they might be dangerous." he pulled out the vial containing the virus sample.

Sheeri watched in horror as he slowly unscrewed the cap. "What are you doing?"

Zoron smiled. "Giving the Republic a little parting gift."

"You can't do that!" She half-shouted. "What will Count Dooku think?"

"I believe he will thank me." Zoron said and gently poured the contents of the vial into the fountain.

Sheeri watched as a small sample of bright green death trickled down into the fountain's water. For a few seconds she could make out a leaf-colored cloud in the water then it was gone like it had never been there.

"Come, Sheeri." Zoron said, dropping the vial and crushing it under his boot. "Let's leave this forsaken rock."

There was nothing she could do but follow.

* * *

 _A few hours after Sheeri Vallay and Morru Zoron make their escape, the Republic forces lead by Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi arrive and free Hailik. The Battle of Tyreea is over._

 _A little girl runs through the streets of Hailik. Her hair bounces over her shoulders, golden in the sunlight. In her dirty hands she clutches a canteen. Her grandmother is thirsty. She knows that in the early days of the Separatist occupation her mother went to get water from the fountain in the University courtyard._

 _She also knows that her mother was shot for taking water from the fountain but that was when the Seps were in charge, the Republic will never shoot people._

 _She's not the only one who thinks this. Many people surround the fountain with their canteens and buckets. She has to crawl between people's legs to get to the fountain._

 _The water looks so pure and beautiful. She wants a drink but she reminds herself that Grandmother must drink first. She dips the canteen into the water and watches as it fills. Then she screws on the cap and runs home._

 _Her grandmother is thankful for the water. She gets a pat on the head and a whisper of "Good girl."_

 _She holds the canteen as her grandmother drinks. She's proud that she's proven to be big enough to take care of Grandmother now that Mother is gone._

 _She has no idea what she has just given her grandmother to drink..._

* * *

 **I meant to get this chapter out yesterday, but life got in the way, so you get it today.**

 **This chapter is actually different from the one on Wattpad. Its not hugely different, but I added some dialogue between Sheeri and Zoron to explain something that happens later in the story. I'm going to be changing the chapter on Wattpad to match this one soon.**

 **Please favorite, review and follow! Also please check out the Legends Canon post- _Return of the Jedi_ story I'm posting, _Vengeance's Bite_.**

 **Emjen**


	5. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

 **Chemistry Lab, Grand Hailik University, Hailik (capitol city of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

Obi-Wan Kenobi stood in the center of the University Lab trying to make since of the strange Force-waves floating around the room.

According to the reports issued by the University, the building had been completely empty since the Separatist invasion, but the building didn't feel abandoned. It still contained whispered hints of recent sentiment activity.

 _This doesn't make any sense. Force-trails never last this long._

Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Obi-Wan turned as his former padawan walked into the lab. "Did you figure anything out?" he asked.

"All the locals I've talked to confirmed that the University's been closed up since the invasion." Anakin said.

"That's all you found out?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Well it sounds like when the Seps first took over and turned off the running water, the people were in a habit of coming to get water from the fountain in the courtyard." Anakin said. "Apparently, after a couple days the droids were ordered to shoot anyone who got close to the courtyard."

"They must have been hiding something." Obi-Wan said.

"Not necessarily." Anakin said. "They could have just been shooting people because they felt like it."

"But if news of that leaked out to the planets that may join the Separatists peacefully Dooku's cause might be damaged." Obi-Wan answered. "There must have been a reason. It's just what reason that causes a problem."

"Your guess is as good as mine." Anakin said. "Did the clones find anything in here?"

"Nothing." Obi-Wan said. "It's almost too neat. Like someone wanted it to look undisturbed."

They started to walk out of the lab and down the hallways of the University.

"We'll have to keep looking." Obi-Wan said.

Anakin nodded. "We'll find something." he said confidently. "There's never been a cover-up that couldn't be seen through."

"I'm sure you're right." Obi-Wan agreed.

They stepped out of the University into the courtyard. A large group of people stood around the fountain filling up canteens and buckets. The two Jedi stopped and watched them. "At least the worst for Tyreea is over now." Anakin said. "The people can start rebuilding their lives."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Very true."

One of Anakin's troopers, Zeer, detached himself from the crowd and came over to them. He was holding a full canteen. "Thirsty, Generals?" he asked.

"When did you get so generous, Zeer?" Anakin teased.

Zeer shrugged. "I dunno, Sir. Must be the heat."

Obi-Wan shook his head. The way Anakin interacted with his men was different, but it provided amazing results so Obi-Wan wasn't about to complain.

Zeer held the canteen out. "Want some, General Kenobi?"

"Thank you, Zeer." Obi-Wan said and took the canteen.

He lifted the canteen halfway to his mouth then he noticed the strange look that had come over Anakin's face. He lowered the canteen. "Anakin?" he asked. "Are you alright?"

Anakin frowned. "I feel something." he said. "Something dangerous."

Obi-Wan checked the Force. "I don't feel anything."

Anakin chewed on his lip. "It's not strong. I can't pin down what it's coming from."

Obi-Wan handed the canteen back to Zeer. He didn't like the idea of Anakin-who'd developed a reputation of being unflappable-feeling something that made him nervous and Obi-Wan liked the idea of not being able to feel it himself even less. "Let's have a look around." he said. "Maybe we'll find something."

* * *

 **Courtyard, Grand Hailik University, Hailik (capitol city of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

"Maybe I'm just paranoid." Anakin said a while later. "Or dehydrated or sleep deprived or a million other things."

"Has it faded any?" Obi-Wan asked.

"No." Anakin admitted. "But we've been over this courtyard a million times there's nothing dangerous here."

Before Obi-Wan could answer his comm went off. He tapped the answer key and an image of Admiral Yularen appeared. "Admiral." he said.

"General Kenobi." Yularen said. "We've received our new marching orders. General Unduli is coming to finish the mop-up on Tyreea. We're returning to Coruscant."

Obi-Wan nodded. "Very good, Admiral. When will Master Unduli be here?"

"A few hours." the Admiral said. "The Council requested that one of you stay on Tyreea until she arrives."

Obi-Wan turned to Anakin. "You and Ahsoka take your men and head back to Coruscant. I'll stay here with Cody and the 212th until Luminara gets here."

Anakin nodded a hard to place emotion flitting across his face. "Alright, Master. I'll go get my men together."

And he hurried off.

* * *

 **Sorry, this chapter's kinda short. Next chapter the real action starts.**

 **Fav, review, follow, please!**

 **P.S. Zeer is a (formerly) Canon character. He was in Karen Traviss' novelization of the Clone Wars Movie.**


	6. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

 **Hanger Deck, Jedi Cruiser** _ **Resolute**_ **, En-route to Coruscant via hyperspace**

Anakin's mouth was dry.

He needed to drink more water. He'd meant to refill his flask while in Hailik but he'd been too busy helping Obi-Wan with the unsolved mystery of the University Chemistry lab. Oh, well, local water was normally terrible. The water on _Resolute_ was much better tasting once you overlooked the slightly disturbing fact that all the water was recycled, which meant you were drinking the water used to wash off the blood, sweat and other nameless filth of a hundreds different battlefields.

He rubbed his forehead. A vicious headache pounded behind his eyes.

 _Honestly, Skywalker, you grew up on a desert planet, you'd think you'd know how to keep from getting dehydrated._

He threaded his way among the numerous maintenance clones dealing with the starships looking for his padawan. Ahsoka had ridden up on a different gunship and he hadn't had time to talk to her since before they'd left Hailik.

He saw his padawan's small form standing under the wing of the one of the larties talking with Checkers, one of their men. As he came closer her eyes snapped away from Checkers' face to look at him.

Checkers turned around and nodded. "General."

"Hey, Checkers." Anakin said. "How are you?"

Checkers smiled. "Glad to get off that rock, Sir. I never liked boiling inside my armor."

"I don't blame you." Anakin laughed.

Checkers gave him a slightly lazy salute. "I'll leave you two now, Sir." he said and walked off.

Anakin turned to Ahsoka. "Everything going good for you, Snips?"

"Yeah." She nodded then winced and raised her fingers to her temples. "But I've got a nasty headache."

"You too, huh?" Anakin asked. "Didn't drink enough water when we were on Tyreea?"

Ahsoka shook her head. "I was going to refill my water flask in that fountain in the University Courtyard but there were so many civilians there getting water, if felt wrong to take even the smallest drop from them."

Anakin knew how she felt. "Come on." he said. "Let's go to the mess hall. We can get something to drink there."

* * *

The mess hall was full of clones laughing, celebrating with each other another completed mission. There was always some celebrating after every mission but it was more wide-spread when they were victorious. When they lost the celebrating was more of the "well at least we're still alive" kind.

Anakin and Ahsoka got their water and whatever almost-food that was being handed out. They made their way to an empty table in one corner.

"How long do you think we'll be on Coruscant?" Ahsoka asked taking a sip from her water glass.

"Hopefully it'll be a substantial amount of time." Anakin said. _I want more time with Padmé._

"Yeah." Ahsoka agreed. "Although we won't get much done if you spend it vanishing the way you always do. Where do you go, Master?"

"Nowhere you'd be interested in." He said evasively raising his water glass. _I'll have to be more careful. Don't want her getting it in her head to follow me one night._

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "You don't know that, Master. Come on. Tell me."

"No." Anakin said setting aside the water glass. He looked down at the food on his plate. He should probably eat. He needed to keep his strength up and Padmé would kill him if he lost more weight. He wasn't hungry though. Dehydration tended to do that to a person.

He rubbed at his eyes. He was getting tired. Maybe he'd be able to find time to sleep before they got back to Coruscant. With any luck he'd dream about Padmé not artie shells tearing up his men.

"Come on, Skyguy." Ahsoka begged, not willing to give up yet. "Tell me."

He was spared from having to think of a way to tell her off by a commotion that rose up at one of the other tables. He looked past Ahsoka to see Zeer fall backward onto the mess hall floor. His buddies, Attie and Del, leapt up reaching for him.

The Force darkened. Something was wrong.

Anakin was on his feet and across the mess hall in a matter of seconds. "What's going on?" he asked the clones.

Attie looked up at him from his position next to his fallen comrade. "We dunno, Sir. He was complaining of a headache and then he just went down."

Anakin knelt down next to Zeer. "Zeer?" He asked. "Can you hear me?"

Zeer shifted, his eyelids fluttered open. "ye'sir." he muttered.

Anakin pealed off the glove off his good hand and pressed it against Zeer's forehead. It was burning hot.

Footsteps pounded across the floor as Kix came running up with Rex. "Is he alright?" the medic asked.

"I can't tell." Anakin said.

Kix settled down next to Zeer's head. He looked the clone over then glanced up at Rex. "Call the medbay. We'll need stretcher to move him."

"What's wrong with him?" Ahsoka asked from above Anakin's head.

"He's probably just severely dehydrated." Kix said. "A lot of the guys are."

That was strange. Anakin distinctly remembered Zeer holding a full canteen of water on Tyreea, maybe the clone had given it away and not drank any himself. Though he had to admit that seemed a little unlikely.

"Is he gonna be alright?" Del asked.

"A couple hours on an IV drip and he'll be fine." Kix said. "You don't have to worry."

Attie and Del heaved a sigh of relief.

The medbay medics arrived with the stretcher. Anakin got up and stepped back as they lifted Zeer onto it. The clone was fading in and out of consciousness, muttering vaguely under his breath.

Something in the Force caught his attention. It was the same elusive danger sense he'd gotten on Tyreea only this time he could pin down its location. It was coming from Zeer.

Anakin pinched the bridge of his nose and gave his head a shake. Surely, a simple case of dehydration couldn't account for such an insistent danger sense. He must be feeling things.

Right?

* * *

 **Zeer is definitely not dehydrated...**

 **Sorry, this chapter's a little late, the next one should be on time.**

 **Posting this chapter like this is something of an experiment for me. Its on a list of possible rewrites, but I'm posting it like this because I actually like it the way it is. I decided to see what people here thought of it before I make my final decision.**

 **Next chapter: we see what Dooku thinks of Zorron's actions.**

 **Follow, Fav and Review!**

 **P.S. Zeer, Attie and Del are canon characters. They're from Karen Traviss' novelization of the Clone Wars Movie. Checkers is from one of Karen Miller's.**

 **P.P.S. I got the idea for the recycled water thing from** _ **Ender's Game**_ **by Orson Scott Card.**


	7. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

 **Dooku's Lair, Serenno**

Dooku had always been proud of his icy cool. He didn't get ragingly angry, he'd found it much easier to terrify people if you didn't get angry when everyone expected you to.

This time he couldn't help it.

"You did what?" he shouted leaning forward in his chair to level a glare at the hollow-headed biochemists standing before him.

Vallay cringed back. "It was his idea, Count Dooku!"

Normally, he would kill a person for saying something like that but Vallay happened to be right. He turned to Zoron who was standing next to his lab assistant not looking the slightest bit afraid.

That annoyed Dooku. Only fools didn't show fear when faced with his wrath.

He stood up and stalked towards the two biochemists. Vallay shrunk away, her eyes wide with terror.

Dooku stopped before Zoron. The Arcona didn't move a muscle, his large, pupil-less green eyes stared up serenely at Dooku.

Dooku leaned in very close. "You should realize that your associate's fear is the only thing keeping her alive." he hissed. "You can't say as much."

"You won't kill me." Zoron said.

Rage exploded in Dooku's stomach, but he managed to remain an outwardly appearance of deadly calm. "How do you know that?"

Zoron stared at him. "You need me. I'm the only one who knows everything there is to know about that virus."

Dooku huffed out a disgusted sigh. "If you know so much about that virus why don't you give me the results of those last few experiments you were going to complete?"

Zoron's self-assured air faltered. He looked to Vallay. "What about those experiments, Sheeri?"

"Don't you dare try to get me to take my wrath out on her." Dooku said. "Tell me about those experiments, Zoron."

Zoron looked at his feet. "We haven't done them." he muttered.

"Really?" Dooku said taking a step back. "That's what I thought." he returned to his desk and sat down. "You know, Zoron, you make me wish I'd settled for a slightly less skilled biochemist who at least would follow procedures."

Zoron looked back up, that had struck a nerve. "No other biochemist could have done this!"

Dooku shrugged. "Don't convince yourself you're that intelligent. Any number of biochemists could have made this virus, you were simply the top of the list. And I'm starting to wish that your assistant there had been on the top of the list because she's probably smart enough to know that releasing an untested virus is a bad idea."

"It is tested!" Zoron said looking like he wanted to kill Vallay for the small smirk of pride that came across her face as she realized she'd been on the list of Capable Biochemists. "It's aced every test we've ever placed before it."

"But you've never studied the way it reacts when a group is exposed to one infected specimen." Dooku snapped.

"It can only be transmitted by ingestion." Zoron said. "That's the way it was designed."

"But you're not sure it can only be transmitted by ingestion." Dooku snarled. "Am I right?"

Zoron didn't reply.

Dooku turned his chair around and stared out the window. "Those tests need to be done." he said. "I'll allow the two of you to live so you can do them." he paused to let that sink in. "For both your sakes you better hope that virus reacts to the tests just as you've predicted. Your lives depend on it."

* * *

 **Lab Spaces, Dooku's Lair, Serenno**

Sheeri waited until the battle droids closed the lab door behind them before she took her datapad and hurled it at the back of Zoron's head.

It struck its mark. The Arcona turned around and glared at her. "What was that for, my dear?" he asked.

"For killing us both." Sheeri snarled.

"We're not dead." Zoron said. "Dooku wants us to run the experiments."

"And then he'll kill us."

"Only if the results aren't as predicted."

"You think that's gonna matter to him?" Sheeri asked. "He's only letting us live because he doesn't want to bring another set of biochemists up to date on the project. Once the tests are done he's going to kill us regardless what the results are."

Zoron shook his head. "Why must you always been such a pessimist? Why can't you just think something through logically?"

"Says the man who released an untested virus into a planet's drinking water without the orders of a Superior."

"You're not going let that drop anytime soon, are you?" Zoron asked.

"No."

Zoron sighed. "How about this; we do these tests, and when they come out just as I've predicted I can have the pleasure of saying 'I told you so.'"

"You're insufferable." Sheeri grumbled.

Zoron shrugged. "So you keep telling me. Now get to work."

Sheeri shook her head and walked across the lab to get ready for the tests.

* * *

 **Next chapter you'll meet another OC.**

 **What did everyone think of Dooku?**

 **Favorite, review and follow!**


	8. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

 **Quwikxie's Apartments, Residential District, Hailik (Capitol City of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

"Ma'am, what's wrong with her?" little Yasmyn Bry asked her blue eyes huge.

Sarrin Jenarian frowned down at the gasping body of Yasmyn's grandmother, Taza. She pressed a palm to the old woman's forehead and winced at the fever. "I don't know, Yas. When did this start?"

"After the Republic took back over." Yasmyn said then the eight-year-old paused. "Is she going to die like Mama and Papa did?"

"Of course not." Sarrin said though she really wasn't so sure.

Gently she set a hand on Yasmyn's shoulder, brushing aside the bright golden stands of hair. "I have to get to work. I'll send Rochell over to help." she murmured.

Yasmyn nodded. "Okay."

Sarrin left the Bry's small apartment and headed down the hallway to her own apartment to get ready for work.

She really hoped that Taza Bry got over this fast. She was the only family little Yasmyn had. Iella Bry had been shot while gathering water for her family and no one had seen Abyssian Bry since the invasion.

 _Yasmyn needs Taza. She has nowhere else to go._

As she arrived at the doorway to her apartment, she reached back and pulled her sweep of coppery-brown hair over one shoulder. She pushed the apartment door and surveyed the homely but neat interior with dark eyes. It was small but it was home and the best she and Roth could afford.

"Rochell?" she called closing the door behind her.

"Yes?" her sixteen-year-old baby sister came out of the back bedroom her auburn hair swinging.

Sarrin's parents had sent Rochell to live with her, Roth and their two children back in the early days of the invasion. The mountain village where Sarrin had grown up had been directly in the path of the original Separatist invasion. Her parents had thought Rochell would be safer in Hailik which it seemed the droids would never be able to touch.

Well, the droids had definitely been able to take Hailik, but Sarrin had heard the Capitol had fared much better than the small mountain villages. There were horror stories going around the refugee camps that told of whole communities being wiped out by the droid hordes.

Sarrin had sent messages to her parents and older brothers and sisters as soon as the initial invasion had ended but she'd gotten no response. She tried to stay positive but that was hard with all the rumors.

"I need you to go up to the Bry's apartment." Sarrin told her little sister. "Taza Bry is sick and it's not fair to leave Yasmyn alone to take care of her."

Rochell nodded. "What about Kellin and Kana? Do you want me to take them along?"

Sarrin shook her head. "I'll take them down to the Dillers' before I go to work. I don't want them around Taza in case whatever she has is contagious."

Rochell nodded. "Alright." she pulled on her boots and ducked out the door heading to the Brys'.

Sarrin smiled at her energy, she had been like that once. When she'd met Roth and they'd played together in the mountain meadows when they'd talked of marriage without really knowing what it meant.

 _Sometimes I wonder which path is better. Mine; the girl who got married at eighteen and had a child at nineteen. Or the one the Dillers' son has taken; thirty-one with no wife and still acting like a child._

But she was happy with her life. She wouldn't be the person she was now if she and Roth hadn't married right out of school and moved to Hailik.

It occurred to her that if one thing about her had been a little different-a little better-when she'd been a child she might not even be on Tyreea she could be anywhere helping anyone, maybe even famous.

 _But that would be as Sarrin Serv'laya not Sarrin Jenarian._

There were times her anger at not being good enough was so strong she couldn't control it but most of the time she was happy with how things had turned out. If she had been good enough at six she wouldn't have met Roth at sixteen. And she wouldn't have her angels.

She walked into the back bedroom. Her two children sat on the floor. Four-year-old Kellin was attempting to teach two-year-old Kana to color and getting frustrated when she broke the colors.

Sarrin got down on the floor next to her little boy. "It'll be alright." she told him. "Kana's only a baby, she'll learn how to use the colors eventually."

"But they're broken!" Kellin whimpered.

"We'll just tape them together." Sarrin said. "They'll be good as new."

Kellin thought about it. "Okay." he said.

They taped the colors back together, then Sarrin quickly changed into different clothes for work.

"You two are going to go play at Mistress Diller's today, okay?" Sarrin asked the kids.

Kellin jumped up and down. "Yay! I love Gramma Diller!"

Hopefully, the Diller's good-for-nothing son wasn't there today. Last Sarrin had heard, he'd gone back to his dumpy apartment on the other side of the city, but that might have changed.

She scooped Kana up in her arms and took Kellin by the hand. The Dillers' apartment was several floors down. Before the invasion they'd taken the turbolift because the kids liked to push the buttons, but the turbolifts had gone out when the Seps had taken over, so they took the stairs.

Mistress Diller opened the door to the apartment when Sarrin knocked. Mistress Diller was an old but stately Twi'lek woman, she must have been a very beautiful once.

"I know this is kind of sudden." Sarrin told her. "But Rochell's helping out at the Brys' and Roth's working, I don't have anyone to watch them when I'm at work."

Mistress Diller smiled. "It's always a pleasure to take care of them." she smiled at Kellin and Kana. "Why don't you two go tell Grandpa Diller you're here?"

"We will!" Kellin said, grabbing Kana's chubby arm as Sarrin set the little girl down. "Grampa Diller! Grampa Diller! We're here!" he yelled leading his sister into the apartment.

Mistress Diller watched until they were deep in conversation with Master Diller then she murmured, "Is Taza Bry as I've heard?"

"I'm no doctor," Sarrin replied, "but it looks serious to me."

Mistress Diller sighed. "Such a heavy burden on young Yasmyn's shoulders, so soon after the deaths of her parents."

"I know." Sarrin agreed.

"Roz mentioned similar illnesses running through his apartment complex." Mistress Diller said.

Roz. The crazy Diller boy. "But that's such an old apartment." Sarrin said. "Chances are the people there are only getting sick because the bombing stirred something toxic up."

Mistress Diller nodded. "Probably. I tried to convince him to stay with us, but he won't. He knows he can't have his friends over for wild parties if he lives with us."

"He needs to get his priorities straight." Sarrin said.

"That he does." Mistress Diller said then she smiled. "Funny that the woman who moved in here as an eighteen-year-old newlywed can see that but he can't."

"I grew up when Kellin was born." Sarrin said.

"Yes." Mistress Diller said. "You better get to work. I'll go up and check on Rochell and the Brys' later, just to see if they needs anything."

"Thank you." Sarrin said and left.

* * *

Quwikxie's Apartment Complex was situated in a quiet street a good distance from the center of the city. Still, the streets were pockmarked from grenades and bombs. Sarrin had to jump over the holes and piles of rubble as she made her way to the outskirts of the business district where she worked.

Allay's Corner Cafe was a small, humble diner just outside the hustle and bustle of the main business district. Allay was a middle-aged Caamasi woman who'd won the diner in a sabaac game when she was fresh out of college. Ever since she'd worked to make the diner a flourishing business.

Sarrin entered the diner through the rear entrance, braided back her hair and tied on an apron. Mya, Allay's niece and the only other employee the diner had, was attempting to keep the caf machine from overflowing the pots. Sarrin darted across the room and turned the machine off. "You have to be more careful." she berated the teenager. "Caf doesn't grow on trees, you know, especially not during a war."

Mya looked away, if the girl was human she would have been blushing. "I'm sorry. It was a mistake."

Sarrin picked up the caf pots and shook her head. _If that girl wasn't Allay's niece she'd have gotten fired a long time ago._

Allay was out in the front leaning on the counter and talking to one of the regulars. She looked up as Sarrin came out. "Morning, Sarrin." she said. "How are things going?"

"Good." Sarrin said, she'd tell Allay about Taza Bry later, when there weren't so many people to overhear.

The next few hours passed in a blur. Sarrin poured caf, handed out pastries and chatted with the patrons. Working as a server in a cafe wasn't the best job one could have but it had its moments.

She was enjoying the conversation she was having with one of the regulars when several men burst into the diner. She looked up to see that the men were clone troopers.

Ever a saleswoman, Allay recovered first. "What can I do for you?" she asked.

The clones walked up to the counter. One, with orange stripes on his armor, slammed his gloved hand on the counter. "We were told a Sarrin Jenarian works here."

Sarrin's heart stopped. What had she done to make the clones want her?

It crossed her mind to sneak into the back and leave, but Allay's eyes flicked to her. The clones noticed, she couldn't leave now.

She walked to the front and set the caf pots on the counter with deliberate carelessness. "That's me." she said brushing her braid over one shoulder.

The clone looked at her, or she thought he did, you couldn't tell through the helmet. "Are you married to Roth Jenarian?"

"Yes." Sarrin said. "Why?"

"Come with us." the clone said. "He's in the hospital."

Sarrin froze. "What? What happened?"

* * *

 **Sorry that this chapter is so late, I just started school so things are kinda crazy.**

 **When I first wrote this chapter I was thinking: "Okay, I need to write the very beginning of the virus. I can either do Obi-Wan or Luminara's POVs, what should I do?" I decided on neither and I created Sarrin as a third option.**

 **I got most of the OC names in this chapter from the website:** _ **.**_ **with limited spelling changes. It's a name generator and I was using it because I've noticed a pattern in the names I create myself so I figured I'd put a little variety in them.**

 **For those of you who don't want to do the math Sarrin is twenty-three (and so is Roth). Yasmyn is the little blonde girl from Chapter 2. As for the thing that could have totally changed Sarrin's life if she'd been better at it as a child, you'll figure out what that is later in the book when it comes into play.**

 **Fav, follow and review, please!**


	9. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

 **Hailik General Hospital, Hailik (Capitol City of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

Sarrin's feet pounded the floor as she followed the clones through the hallways of the General Hospital. Her breaths burned in her chest. What was wrong with Roth? He'd been fine when he'd left for work today, what had changed?

The clones hadn't told her anything, in fact, they'd pointedly ignoring all her questions. It seemed they had only been ordered to take her to the hospital and nothing more.

They entered a trubolift. The clones stood stock still as they rode up.

"Are we almost there?" Sarrin asked bouncing up and down on her heals.

"Almost." the lead clone said.

The trubolift doors opened and the clones walked out. "Come on." the lead one said.

Sarrin followed. Her eyes flitted to the notice on the wall stating the ward.

 _/Intensive Care Unit/_

 _Oh no. That sounds bad._

The clones strode down the hallway. The lead one stopped before a silver-gray door exactly like all the others and pushed it open. Inside were two people-a human man and a Mirlian woman-and a bed.

The human man looked to the clones. "Cody, did you find her?"

The clone-presumably Cody—nodded and motioned to Sarrin. "Sarrin Jenarian, General."

Sarrin didn't hear him, her eyes had settled on the unconscious figure in the bed. "Roth!"

Her husband didn't hear her. His beautiful dark eyes were closed. His face was pale and lifeless. She was reminded of Taza Bry. She closed her fingers around his hand. "Roth! Roth, sweetie, can you hear me?"

A hand closed around her shoulder. "Mistress Jenarian."

She turned around It was the human man. A silver weapon hung from his belt. A lightsaber. Something angry exploded in Sarrin's stomach but she ignored it.

"Is he dead?" she demanded of the Jedi. "What happened?"

"He's not dead." the Jedi said. "But we're not sure what's wrong with him. We were hoping you'd know."

Sarrin glared up at him. "How would I know? He was fine when he went to work, I would never have let him go to work if he was ill!"

The Jedi got down on his knees next to her. "Please, Mistress Jenarian. I did not mean up imply that you don't care for your husband." he took a deep breath and held out a hand. "I am Obi-Wan Kenobi. We're doing everything in our power to make sure your husband gets better."

The Mirlian woman walked forward, another lightsaber hung from her belt. "Are you absolutely certain you don't know what's going on? Are you sure he wasn't ill when he left this morning?"

"He was fine!" Sarrin snapped. "Why are you interrogating me?"

Obi-Wan Kenobi looked up at the Mirlian woman. "She's right, Luminara."

The Mirlian woman-Luminara-shook her head. "Honestly, Obi-Wan."

The door opened and another Mirlian woman entered. This one was young, older than Rochell, though, but only by a few years. "Another one was just brought in, Master Unduli." she said to the older Mirlian.

Luminara Unduli turned. "Another one, Barriss? How many does that make now?"

"Two hundred and fifteen." the young woman called Barriss said. "I'd say this is fast becoming an epidemic."

Sarrin looked up. "There are more like my husband?"

Kenobi nodded. "Many. I don't mean to sound pushy but are you sure you've never seen anything like this before?"

Jedi or not, he deserved to hear everything. "There's an old woman in my apartment building who displays similar symptoms. But I assumed it was just age and stress."

Kenobi's eyes widened. "Why wasn't she brought in?"

"All her family is dead except for her granddaughter!" Sarrin snapped. "Courtesy of the war!"

"She should be brought here." Kenobi said. "The hospital will be able to care for her."

"You said yourself you have no idea how to cure it." Sarrin pointed out.

"We can keep her alive until we can cure her." Kenobi said.

Sarrin shook her head. "But her granddaughter..."

"Can you take her in?" Kenobi asked. "For the time being."

Sarrin looked up at him. "I can." she said.

"Good." Kenobi said. "What apartment does she live in?"

Sarrin gave him the address and he nodded. "We'll wait a little while before we leave. You should go home and prepare the woman's granddaughter, but first you can have some time with your husband."

Sarrin looked at Roth's motionless body. "Will I be able to get back in to visit him?"

Kenobi put a hand on her shoulder. "You will. If anyone tries to stop you tell them to see me." he turned and started to walk out. "Only get an oxygen mask from the front desk next time. We don't know how it spreads."

* * *

 **Bridge, Jedi Cruiser** _ **Resolute**_ **, en-route to Coruscant via hyperspace**

The wide expanses of hyperspace stretched out before the _Resolute_.

Ahsoka bounced up and down on her heals in a fit of barely controlled excitement. _We're going back to Coruscant!_

Her master glanced at her out of the corners of his eyes. "Calm down, Ahsoka. You're acting like a little kid."

Ahsoka rolled her eyes. "I'm excited." she smiled. "Come on, Skyguy. I know you're excited too."

Skyguy raised an eyebrow at her. "What makes you think that?"

"Going back to Coruscant always makes you happy." she said. "I know that. I'm not blind, Master."

Neither of them pointed out that she really was a little kid. Ahsoka was thankful for that. When she'd first become his padawan, Skyguy had always been calling her "youngling" but now he'd realized his mistake and there were no hard feelings.

Footsteps sounded on the deck as a clone trooper entered the bridge. He saluted to them. "Pilot Whirl reporting on the status of the larties, General."

Anakin blinked at the clone. "Isn't Hawk in charge of the larties?" he asked.

"He's ill, sir." Whirl said. "I took over in his absence."

Ahsoka frowned. Hawk was sick? That was worrying. A lot more men had gotten sick after Zeer but Hawk was the first pilot. Ahsoka couldn't help wondering how so many clones had gotten that dehydrated. Her headache was gone now.

She could tell Skyguy was having the same thoughts but he pushed them aside in favor of getting the report. "What's the report, Whirl?"

Whirl nodded, Ahsoka could sense he was proud of the importance of his task. "We have a full count of all the missing larties." he said. "Four are MIA. We have confirmed that ten were shot down. Of the remaining twenty-six, fifteen need minor repairs, three have heavy damage. The other eight are totally fine and ready for action."

Anakin nodded. "Thank you, Whirl. You can go."

The pilot saluted. "General." and walked away.

Anakin turned to Ahsoka. "Did you hear that?"

Ahsoka nodded. "Hawk shouldn't have had a problem. He spent the invasion in an air-conditioned lartie cockpit with all the water he could need."

Anakin nodded. "Except for a half hour after we took Hailik when we had the larties refueled on the surface."

"What do you think this means?" Ahsoka asked.

Anakin looked out to hyperspace. "I don't know." he admitted. "But I have a bad feeling about this..."

* * *

 **Tada! Chapter 7!**

 **I'm not really sure if they do reports like the one Whirl did in the army but I needed to highlight the fact that Hawk was sick to cause Anakin and Ahsoka to start to doubt the "dehydration theory."**

 **Next chapter: things get worse.**

 **Favorite, follow and review!**

 **Emjen**


	10. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8**_

 **Hailik General Hospital, Hailik (Capitol City of Tyreea), Tyreea, Expansion Region**

Barriss Offee's boot heals tapped on the floors as she hurried through the hallways. Her short, half-cape billowed out behind her.

She came to a stop before the front desk of the hospital and leaned on the counter. "Hey, Coe," she said "Anyone else get brought in?"

The man looked up from his computer. "Three, Commander Offee. All with the same symptoms as the others."

Barriss chewed on her lip. "You're sure you've never seen anything like this before?"

Coe nodded. "This isn't a disease we commonly treat."

"I wonder where it came from," Barriss muttered.

Coe shrugged. "Maybe the fighting stirred up some kind of toxin we hadn't noticed before."

"Maybe," Barriss agreed. "Now if you'll excuse me, I should go find my master."

Luminara Unduli was up in the Intensive Care Unit looking over those sick with the strange illness. Barriss looked through the glass doors to the individual rooms as she hurried along the hallway. In one room the woman-Sarrin Jenarian-who'd been questioned by Master Luminara and Master Kenobi sat comforting her husband, a breath mask strapped over her face. Her two children sat on the bed breath masks slightly too large on their little faces.

In the next room, a little blonde girl sat with her ill grandmother. The little girl was holding the old woman's hand and crying softly, tears running down her mask. A teenage girl was also in the room, she came over and put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

Barriss would have liked to comfort them, but she couldn't. Her master would need her. She'd reached the room where her master's presence was. She reached to her belt and pulled out the breath mask she'd been given by the hospital staff. She pulled it on and entered the room.

Master Luminara, Master Kenobi, Commander Cody and Commander Gree were already in the room wearing masks and looking at the patient in the bed. Barriss curtsied to the Jedi Masters then gasped as she realized who the person in the bed was.

"Is that a clone?" she asked leaning forward.

Master Luminara nodded. "A member of the 212th. There are several more, but this is the worst one."

Barriss stared down at the sick clone. "I thought that only the civilians were getting sick." she said.

"That's what we thought, too," Master Kenobi answered. "But it appears we were wrong."

"What are we going to do?" she asked.

"We will stay here with the 41st," Master Luminara said. "Master Kenobi has to return to Coruscant. He's already spent enough time here."

"Are you leaving now, Master Kenobi?" Barriss asked. She wanted to ask if that was wise now that some of his men were sick, but the Masters had probably already thought of that.

"Yes," Master Kenobi said. "Cody and I have to get to a gunship to go up to the _Negotiator_ in the next few minutes."

"I'll walk with you, if you like," Barriss offered.

Master Kenobi smiled through the breath mask. "That's good of you, Barriss. I would much enjoy it."

Removing their breath masks, Barriss, Master Kenobi and Commander Cody left the hospital. The air of Tyreea was muggy and warm. Barriss made a face, half wishing she wore clothes like Ahsoka did.

"This disease worries me," Master Kenobi said. "I can't figure what it's from and the Tyreeans know nothing about it."

Barriss glanced over her shoulder, Cody had fallen back and was talking to someone over his helmet comm. "It worries me too," she admitted. "But it has to be coming from somewhere. If we could figure out from where we could start containing it."

Master Kenobi nodded in agreement.

They were passing the University. A crowd of people were gathering water from the fountain in the courtyard. Master Kenobi watched them. "The other day," he said, "before the 501st returned to Coruscant, Anakin and I were walking in that courtyard and Anakin thought he felt danger. I couldn't feel anything and we could never pin down what Anakin felt."

Barriss frowned at the courtyard. "That's strange."

Master Kenobi nodded. "It is. With the exception of maybe Master Yoda, Anakin is the most sensitive Jedi I've ever met, normally he can pinpoint the cause of the things he feels. At least, the ones he mentions."

They kept walking, but Barriss' mind stayed in the courtyard trying to reason out what Anakin Skywalker might have been feeling.

After Master Kenobi and Cody were on their gunship, Barriss headed back to the hospital. She'd meant to take a different way back but her feet took her back to the University courtyard and the strange mystery of Anakin Skywalker's Phantom Danger Sense.

She shrugged and entered the courtyard. _I can stay for a few minutes, Master Luminara won't miss me._

The instant she stepped into the courtyard she was hit by an elusive but persistent danger sense. She blinked. _I thought Master Kenobi couldn't feel anything when he was here. How could he miss this?_

She looked around the courtyard for danger but didn't see anything.

 _Something has to be here._ She thought. _I know I'm not feeling things._

She closed her eyes and called the Force around her. Following its channels she walked slowly across the courtyard. People jostled her but she didn't open her eyes.

Then her foot struck something hard. She opened her eyes to see that the Force had led her to the fountain. She frowned, wondering if she should walk around it, but the Force seemed to pointing to the fountain. Trying to think, she dipped her hands into the water to get a drink.

The instant her fingers touched the clear liquid a shock like lightning shot through her body. She jumped back and wiped her hands on her skirt, looking around to see if anyone else was experiencing this, but the civilians were just drinking peacefully. She reached out and touched the water again and got the same results.

The pieces fell in place. Suddenly, everything made since.

"The water," She breathed. "It's in the water."

* * *

 **Well, here's chapter 8. I really have no excuse as to why its been so long since you got your last update. I've been busy, but unlike the rest of my stuff I'm ahead of where I'm posting in this story. From now on, I'll try to keep updates on this steady until you catch up with me and the people on wattpad.**

 **For those of you who are wondering why Barriss can pinpoint the danger sense when Anakin couldn't and Obi-Wan couldn't even feel it; that will start to make sense as you learn more about the nature of the virus. I'm also planning to delve a little into the reasons that Barriss goes from proper padawan to raging terrorist between season 2 and season 5 later in this story.**

 **Next Chap: Anakin, Ahsoka and the 501st end up in an unexpected place and Sheeri and Zoron finish their experiments. (This one will be out much sooner, I promise)**

 **Emjen**


	11. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9**_

 **Battle Room, Jedi Cruiser** _ **Resolute**_ **, in orbit around Coruscant**

"Very interesting, Skywalker," Master Windu said via hologram. "You're certain this illness running through your men is just dehydration?"

"Fairly," Anakin said carefully.

Windu nodded. "If that is true then this should blow over in a couple days."

Anakin's fists clenched, he had to bite his tongue to keep from saying something like, "and you think I'd lie about something like this?"

Still, doubt pulled at the back of his mind. The doubt that came from the fifty-two clones who'd gone down ill during the flight back to Coruscant. Logically, the dehydration theory made sense but his gut instincts whispered that something more sinister was afoot. It didn't help that ever since Zeer had become sick he hadn't been able to shake the danger sense he'd first felt on Tyreea.

He wanted to bring this up to the Council but he wasn't sure if they'd believe him if he did.

Windu changed the subject. "We'll be awaiting your full report, Skywalker. Make sure it's finished promptly."

"It will be," Anakin promised.

Windu nodded. "Good. You and your troops will remain on Coruscant at least until Obi-Wan gets back, after that we have no guaranties as to how long it will be before you're redeployed."

In other words he most likely wouldn't have much time with Padme this time back, Anakin buried his disappointment in the far reaches of his mind. The Council probably couldn't sense his feelings with the distance that separated them but Ahsoka, who was standing next to him, could.

He nodded doing his best to look like an emotionless Jedi not a lonely husband. "Yes, Master Windu."

A chorus of whispers sounded behind him as the blast doors that lead to the bridge opened. Part of Anakin was annoyed that someone was interrupting this meeting with Council and making it look like he couldn't control him men. The other part of him knew that his men knew better than to interrupt meetings with the Council for no reason and wondered what was going on.

Admiral Yularen moved up on his left side. "General," he whispered in Anakin's ear, to quietly for the Council to hear. "Kix is here. He says he needs to talk to you. It's about the sick men."

"Why?" Anakin asked, he knew he confusion showed on his face. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Yularen said. "But Kix evidently thinks this can't wait."

"What's going on, Skywalker?" Windu asked.

Anakin frowned, looking from Yularen to Windu and back again. He weighed the situation. The Council would probably be angry if he went to talk to Kix now but Kix didn't just ask to speak to him urgently for no reason.

He made his decision, he trusted Kix more than he worried about upsetting the Council.

"Can you excuse me?" he asked the Council. "I'll be right back." then he turned and walked towards the bridge without waiting for their answer.

Kix was waiting for him in the Battle Room doorway. "What's going on, Kix?" he asked. "I'm kind of in the middle of something here."

Kix nodded, he looked worried. "I know, sir, but you need to hear this before we leave the ship."

Kix's worry was beginning to rub off on Anakin. "What happened?" he asked.

Kix's voice dropped to a near whisper so no one standing around them could hear. "We have another sick clone, sir. It's Med."

"Med?" Anakin asked. "But be works in the medbay. He wasn't even on Tyreea! How could he get sick?"

Kix winced and Anakin realized his voice had risen to a clearly audible level.

Ahsoka turned to look at them. "Master?" she asked. "What's going on?"

"I don't know," Anakin admitted.

"Tell us, you should, Skywalker," Yoda said, it was the first time any Council member but Windu had spoken.

Anakin looked to Kix. "Maybe you better talk to them."

Kix blinked, a look of panic crossing his face, then he nodded. "Yessir."

Anakin walked across the battle room, back into range of the holoprojector.

"What happened?" Windu demanded.

Anakin motioned Kix forward. The clone stepped into range and snapped to attention.

Windu raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" he asked.

Anakin gave Kix an encouraging nudge. The clone swallowed heavily. "Medic Kix, General Windu, sir."

The members of the Council looked at each other. "What did you come here to tell your General, Kix?" Shaak Ti said.

Kix was bouncing slightly up and down on his heels, not enough for the Council to notice but Anakin could see it. "Since we left Tyreea we've had a number of troopers who have fallen ill. They were all on Tyreea but I just received word that one of the medbay clones is sick and its highly unlikely he could have gotten dehydrated because he wasn't even on Tyreea."

The Council members looked at each other. "Know why this clone is sick, do you?" Yoda asked.

Kix shook his head. "Nosir. But the symptoms are the same as the sick clones from Tyreea."

Windu held up a hand and turned to Anakin. "We're going to put you on hold while we discuss this. Freeze your landing preparations, no one leaves that cruiser until you hear from us. Do you understand?"

Anakin nodded. "Yes, Master Windu."

The holoprojector flickered into blackness as someone in the Council chamber put them on hold. Anakin turned to Admiral Yularen. "Stop our landing preparations."

Yularen nodded and hurried to the ship's intercom. A minute later the admiral's voice echoed through the ship saying that all preparations for landing were being suspended indefinitely.

Ahsoka chewed on her lip. "What do you think they're going to decide?"

Anakin looked at Kix who shrugged. "I have no idea," Anakin admitted.

They waited in tense silence for almost an hour then the holoprojector flickered back to life. "Skywalker?" Windu asked.

"I'm here," Anakin said straightening.

"Good," Windu said. "The Council has come to a decision. You won't be landing at the GAR base."

"Then where are we landing?" Anakin asked.

"The coordinates are being beamed to you," Windu replied.

Anakin looked down as the coordinates arrived and displayed themselves on the battle room stat table. "Those are the coordinates for the Coruscant Standards Hospital," he said. "Why are we going there?"

"The Council decided that the chance that your men picked up a contagious bug on Tyreea was too great to be ignored," Windu answered. "The 501st and the entire crew of Jedi Cruiser _Resolute_ are being quarantined until further notice."

* * *

 **Lab Spaces, Dooku's Secret Lair, Serenno**

Sheeri flipped through the information on a small datapad. So far the experiments on the virus that hadn't been finished before its release were going perfectly, just as they'd predicted. Zorron hadn't stopped crowing about his brilliance in days and part of Sheeri wanted something to go wrong to prove that he wasn't as smart as he thought he was.

She pushed that thought away. This was a highly infectious virus they were talking about. Everything had to go perfectly.

There was just one experiment that she still had to check the status on. A few days ago she'd infected a lab rat with the virus and put it in a cage with several other rats. The purpose of the experiment was to prove that the virus couldn't be passed from being to being. It was the experiment Sheeri was the most worried about. She hoped it went well.

She moved over to the tank where the rats were being contained, datapad ready to take down information. What she saw shocked her.

Out of the seven rats in the tank four were dead and the other three weren't looking so great.

Her heart stopped. _No, no, we can't be wrong. We just can't be._ The virus had to preform exactly as planned. If it didn't who knew what problems the sample that had been released on Tyreea would cause.

 _If it can pass from being to being it would be an epidemic. A plague. Uncontrollable_.

She tried to calm down and think rationally. There could be another reason the rats were dying. Maybe their food or water levels were low or someone had accidentally turned off the oxygen refreshers.

But a quick test proved that everything in the rats' tank was normal. Heart pounding, she dressed in a bio-hazard suit and heaved the tank into the small airtight room that was used for instances such as this. Once inside with the room tightly sealed she opened the tank and went about manually testing the rats for the virus.

They all came back positive.

She managed to control her panic until she'd gotten out of the room and stripped off the bio-hazard suit. Then the fear overwhelmed her.

"Zorron!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "Zorron, you have to see this! Something's gone wrong!"

* * *

 **Well now they know where the virus came from but its not going to do them one bit of good.**

 **I decided to give you this update a day early because I don't know if I'll have time to do it this weekend.**

 **Random note: I will warn you that at first how I'm deciding who does and doesn't get sick isn't going to make since. Eventually, when you figure out how the virus works it will but until then, keep an open mind.**

 **Next Chapter: the 501st is tested at the hospital and Anakin has a close call. (With what? You'll see...heh, heh, heh...)**

 **Emjen**


	12. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

 **Quarantine Division, Coruscant Standards Hospital, Coruscant**

The men were subdued.

Anakin frowned searching the faces of each clone as they stood in a long line waiting to be checked out by the doctors before being locked away until it was safe to come out. The clones hadn't been told exactly what was going on, but Anakin suspected they probably knew anyway. Clones were intuitive like that.

Ahsoka bounced up and down on her heals in front of Anakin. Anakin put a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, Snips," he muttered.

"I'm trying," she said. "But I can't."

"It'll be okay," He said.

"You don't know that," Ahsoka muttered under her breath.

She probably hadn't meant for him to hear that so Anakin ignored it. He didn't want to admit that part of him whole-heartily agreed with her.

The members of the 501st and the crew of the Resolute stretched on towards the doctors who checked everyone for signs of disease and confiscated each person's weapons. Anakin wasn't sure if the doctors had found a sick person yet. Everyone who went through the check was led by a nurse through a door on the far side of the room, there was no way to tell who was taken to quarantine and who was taken up to Intensive Care.

The room had the air of a line of prisoners waiting to be checked for proof of their treason. The thought pressed down on Anakin's mind. He tried to push it away. It wasn't like that, the doctors just had to make sure they didn't have any weapons. Sometimes people panicked in quarantine and tried to break out, the doctors had to make sure that couldn't happen.

Slowly, the line inched forward. Anakin's fingers tapped a nervous rhythm on his leg. He wished he'd been able to send a message to Padmé and tell her what was going on. When she heard the 501st was quarantined (and she would, nothing like that escaped her) she'd panic. He'd tried several times during the landing procedures to sneak away to compose a message to her but every time someone had found him. Eventually, he'd had to abandon the endeavor for fear of rousing someone's suspicions.

Hopefully, Padmé would forgive him.

Ahsoka was next in line. Anakin watched as his scrawny apprentice unhook her belt and set in on the table. One doctor ran a medscanner over her and poked her finger to get some blood. Another riffled through the pouches of her belt laying out every one of her little possessions for everyone to see.

That was when Anakin realized that this really was a line of prisoners being searched for proof of treason. At least, that was what it was for him. True, he'd never betrayed the Republic—he'd never dream of it—but in his belt pouches he carried a several small objects, two of which would tie him to Padmé.

And he was a traitor to the Jedi Order.

He'd never really allowed himself to think about it before. He knew that if he did it would make facing Obi-Wan and everyone else he was lying to so much harder. He had betrayed the Order, not in the way that those who joined with Dooku did, but as traitor to the Order's very ideals. He'd sworn to follow the Code, to renounce attachment, and he was married.

The thought was horrifying, but not as horrifying as the realization that if Ahsoka saw the things he carried she might start asking awkward questions. If the wrong person heard, bad things would happen.

He flinched as someone poked him in the back. "General," it was Ryte, "your turn."

He blinked and realized that a doctor farther down the line was motioning for him. He wondered how long he'd been zoned out. Hopefully, no one but Ryte had noticed. He reached out with his powers to check. Ahsoka was still getting checked out by the doctors, but he could feel part of her attention focused on him. She'd noticed his distraction.

As he walked towards the doctor, he braced himself. He couldn't do anything to make Ahsoka more curious about the things in his belt pouches. He unbuckled his belt and tossed it onto the table along with his comlink like it didn't matter.

A doctor ran a medscanner over his body. Anakin didn't even bother paying attention to the sounds the machine made. If he and Padmé got caught, being infected by whatever his troops had would be the least of his problems.

The doctor in charge of searching his belt set his lightsaber and the comm in a small box on the table and opened one of the pouches to remove its contents. Thankfully, it was the one with his Jedi-issue survival gear, micro-binoculars and water flask in it. The next one contained his small med-kit (the one that wasn't useful for battle-field injuries), nutrition tablets. There was also the container of anti-nausea meds he'd been given by the Healers as a child when they learned the hard way that he got violently seasick. The container was supposed to be just anti-nausea meds, but Anakin used it to store fever reducers and painkillers and other meds he'd stolen from Kix. Those meds he used for headaches and battlefield injuries that hurt a little more than he was willing to admit.

The doctor didn't open the container, he just turned it over in his hands reading the label. "Do you need this regularly?" he asked.

"No," Anakin snapped, his nerves focusing on the doctor.

The doctor didn't react Anakin's tone of voice, he just put the container and the med-kit into the box with Anakin's lightsaber.

"Why do you need to do that?" Anakin asked, more to stall than anything else.

The doctor looked up. "We need to know as soon as a patient begins to fall ill. Therefore, all non-essential medications must be confiscated."

"I don't get sick easily," Anakin said. Well, his health had taken a strange nosedive recently—probably from stress—so maybe that wasn't so true anymore, but it was a lot easier to pretend to be invincible when you thought you were invincible.

The doctor shrugged. "We'll be the judge of that, Master Jedi."

Ahsoka's Force presence moved. Anakin turned his head enough to see his padawan walking by escorted by a doctor. She vanished through the doorway on the far side of the room.

He had to suppress a sigh of relief.

The doctor opened the last of Anakin's belt pouches, the one that contained his personal items; the one that could reveal his secret. He pulled a small datapad out of the pouch. It was the 'pad Anakin had rigged to be untraceable and used to send messages to Padmé. It only sent text, but it was better than nothing. The doctor barely glanced at it before he set it in the box. Next was Anakin's multi-tool. The doctor turned it over in his hands then set it in the box with the meds and Anakin's lightsaber. Apparently, a multi-tool was considered a weapon.

The next object to he pulled out was a smooth river stone, black with red veins crossing through it when the light hit it. It had been Qui-Gon Jinn's. Qui-Gon had given it to Obi-Wan when Obi-Wan had turned thirteen, and Obi-Wan had given it to Anakin when Anakin turned thirteen. Anakin supposed that meant he needed to give it to Ahsoka when she turned thirteen, but that was a problem for another day. After all, he needed to make sure she _lived_ to turn thirteen first.

The doctor's eyebrows rose when he saw the river stone. Anakin figured that had something to do with the fact that children were normally the ones with rocks in their pockets. The doctor didn't comment however and reached back into the pouch.

The last object was the most incriminating. It was a small bit of white lace, cut from Padmé's wedding veil. Anakin knew it was very dangerous to carry that around with him, but he couldn't bear to leave it safely hidden away in his room in the Temple. The way he saw it, if he was going to die on some far away world, he wanted to have something of Padmé's with him.

Again this got the doctor's eyebrows to raise but no comment. Anakin was thankful for the man's innuendo, even though Ahsoka was gone, it was probably saving Anakin.

Quickly, the doctor put Anakin's possessions back into the belt pouches and handed the belt back. Anakin buckled it on and followed the doctor that had been manning the Med-scanner out of the room. A long, nondescript hallway stretched on to his left and right. The doctor turned right and they walked down it for a while, then the doctor stopped by a door. He swiped a card and the door opened.

Anakin found himself in a large room full of little clear-walled rooms the size of prison cells. Each one had a clone or other member of the 501st in it. Anakin saw Ahsoka in one of the cells. She waved and he waved back, a tension he hadn't even noticed leaving him. She was okay. At least for now.

The doctor led him away from Ahsoka and deeper into the maze of quarantine cells. Finally, they reached an empty cell. The doctor swiped his card and a nearly invisible door opened. "In you go," the doctor said absently, and Anakin stepped inside.

The cell was sparsely furnished. A small bed with a navy blue blanket. A table with a single chair. A small stand with a holoprojector sitting on it. A small 'fresher partitioned off by gray walls just slightly taller than Anakin was.

 _Cozy_. Anakin thought and turned around, only to see that the doctor had already closed the door and walked away. A flat droid voice began to intone rules about quarantine. Anakin ignored the voice and made the round of his cell to see if there was anything more interesting about it. Nope. Just a datapad of boring holozines and games on the table. He turned his attention to the occupants of the surrounding cells. All clones, shinies who he didn't know very well. Probably part of the batch that had come in after Geonosis. Anakin thought he knew all their nicknames but he wasn't sure.

The droid voice was still intoning rules. Anakin couldn't believe there were so many. He settled down on the small bed (hard just like the ones on the _Resolute_ ).

After a few minutes he got the distinct feeling that he was waiting for something, but he had no idea what...

* * *

 **Quarantine Cube #4,561, Quarantine Division, Coruscant Standards Hospital, Coruscant**

Anakin woke up to a warning in the Force.

Instinctively, his hand went to his belt, groping for his lightsaber. When his side was empty he almost panicked, then remember where he was.

Opening his eyes, he sat up. He pressed his hands into the small of his back, wincing as his body protested the awkward half-sitting up, half-lying down position he'd been sleeping in.

Once the pain faded he looked around, trying to pinpoint the danger that was prickling at his senses. It wasn't as insistent as it had felt to his sleeping mind. _He_ wasn't in danger but someone close by was.

The warning focused on the cell across from his, it was surrounded by doctors in bio-hazard suits.

Anakin stood up and crossed the width of his cell in a couple strides. He frowned trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on in the other cell but he couldn't see around the doctors. He turned his attention to the shiny in the cell next to his. The clone glanced at him and Anakin shouted, "What's going on?" even though the cell walls were soundproof.

The rookie clone, his Force signature feeling like that of a scared child, shrugged.

Anakin turned back to the other cell and the cluster of doctors. They were opening the door now, having activated a shield to keep the air inside the cell and the air outside from mixing. Anakin watched as they pulled the shiny who'd occupied the cell out on a close-topped stretcher.

The shiny in the cell next to Anakin's was shouting. They were probably squad mates, and seen as they were both so new squad mates were probably all they had.

Anakin leaned his head against the side of his cell and heaved out a sigh.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

 **Yeah, another long wait. Fortunately, school is almost over, and I hope to have more time to write/post then. Summer is coming! Yay! (I'm so excited.)**

 **I'm not quite sure how many pouches a Jedi has on their belt. I think Anakin's Clone Wars costume only has two but the live action movies have more so I took a random number.**

 **When I first posted this chapter on Wattpad, I also posted a short story called** _ **Mal de Mer**_ **which sort of went along with the whole anti-nausea meds thing (it was an Anakin seasick story). If you want me to repost it here, review and let me know!**

 **Next chapter: I introduce another OC and Obi-Wan will return to Coruscant (and probably get the same treatment as Anakin).**

 **Favorite, follow and review, please!**

 **Emjen**


	13. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

 **Intensive Care Unit, Coruscant Standards Hospital, Coruscant**

It had been a long night.

Jakari Varnu ran a flustered hand through her long, purple Pantoran hair. She caught a glimpse of herself one of the ICU's windows. Her medical scrubs were wrinkled, her brown eyes were rimmed with dark rings that stood out in stark contrast to the bright yellow marking across the bridge of her nose. She looked exhausted.

Heaving out a sigh she rubbed at her eyes. _Remind me why I wanted to be a doctor?_

She strode down the hallways like a woman on a mission. Several people called out to her but she ignored them. She had more important things to worry about today than being social. She had some a meeting then she had to get back down to Quarantine. Normally, she worked up here in the ICU but the people down in Quarantine were severally shorthanded so she'd been agreed to help out.

Jakari pushed opened a door to an observation room. Several doctors were standing there watching one of the clone troopers who'd fallen ill last night through the glass. Beyond the glass the clone writhed on the bed, soaked in sweat. One of the ICU doctors, Lisel Myrle, was doing her best to calm him.

Kor Gric, a large Chandrian male who was in charge of the hospital, looked at her as she came in. "Jakari," he greeted.

"You wanted me?" she asked.

Gric frowned then held out a datapad. "This is the information we've collected from the sick clones. It should be programmed into your medscanners and Containment Cubes."

Jakari reached out and took the datapad. "Thank you. Do we know what's wrong yet?"

Gric shook his head. "No. All we've been able to prove is that the assumptions made by the medics on the _Resolute_ are completely wrong. This is no simple case of dehydration, this is some kind of virus. However, we can't figure out how it spreads," he frowned even deeper. "We can't even figure out what the infection is targeting."

Jakari bit her lip; that sounded close to hopeless. "How much of 501st and the rest of the crew do you think is infected?"

Gric shrugged. "Probably, a lot but I couldn't give you a number. Just keep doing what you're doing. Until we have more information, that's all you can do."

Jakari left the ICU and returned to Quarantine. As she entered the cavernous room she passed another sick clone being carted out. She pursed her lips and kept walking.

Her coworker and boyfriend, Aycin Kollarri, was sitting at a monitoring station biting his lip, his brilliant green eyes narrowed under a fringe of golden hair.

"You okay?" she asked leaning against the station.

"Just a little worried," he replied without looking up.

"Worried?" Jakari asked. "You?"

Aycin sat up straighter and frowned at her. "Jakari, I've never seen anything like this in all my twenty-nine years and its making me nervous."

Jakari forced a smile to hide her own worries. "Aycin we've only been alive for twenty-nine years, half of that we never thought about diseases."

"You're missing the point, Jakari," Aycin said. "Everyone's worried."

"I know," Jakari said, "I'm worried too," she held out the datapad. "Gric gave this to me. Its information about the sick clones. He wants it programmed into our machines."

Aycin took the 'pad. "I'll make sure that happens."

Jakari smiled. "Thanks, you're so much better at that computer stuff than I am."

Aycin smiled back. "No problem. Though while I'm doing this, can you look in on someone for me?"

"Sure," Jakari said. "Who?"

"The patient in Quarantine Cube #4,561," Aycin said, starting to look through the information on the 'pad. "Human. Jedi."

"Anakin Skywalker," Jakari breathed.

Aycin nodded without looking up. "That's him."

"You could have just said that," Jakari said. "He's the only Jedi here."

"Not true," Aycin said. "The little Togruta's a Jedi."

"She's a child," Jakari pointed out. "She hardly counts."

Aycin shrugged and looked up. "Let's not talk about this now. I need you to go and check on Anakin Skywalker."

Jakari pursed her lips. Her boyfriend was asking her to talk to the Hero With No Fear. "Is he sick?" she asked.

"Not that the scanners can tell," Aycin answered. "But he's been pacing his Cube all night. I think someone needs to check up on him and make sure everything's okay. Can you do that?"

Jakari nodded. "Sure. I'll go check things out."

 _It's only talking to the Poster Boy of the entire War effort._ She told herself as she walked down the long halls of Containment Cubes heading for Cube #4,561. _How hard can it be?_

 _That's the understatement of the millennium._

Anakin Skywalker was pacing his Cube when she arrived. Her first thought was that he didn't look anything like they pictured him on the holonet. He was...younger…than she'd expected, definitely younger than she was. He still had the narrow shoulders of a teenage boy, but his prowling, graceful steps were like no adolescent she'd ever seen.

When she stopped outside the Cube his head snapped around to look at her. She froze. His eyes were a brilliant, icy blue; cold and piercing. She shuddered; those were not a young man's eyes.

Skywalker walked over and they stood on the opposite sides of the traspisteel staring at each other. Fumbling, Jakari turned on the microphone mounted on the Cube's wall which would allow her to talk to Skywalker without breaching the Cube's atmosphere. "Hello, Master Jedi," she said trying to keep from stuttering. This man-boy, really-had an aura of pure power around him, like nothing she'd ever encountered before.

Skywalker nodded, respectfully but distantly. "Doctor."

"The Cubes are soundproof," she said. "How did you know I was here?"

Skywalker shrugged. "I have my ways," he said evasively. "To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"

Jakari had never had a conversation like this before. She'd always thought that to be polite was to be warm but now she could see it wasn't. Skywalker was being polite but his manner was cold as the deepest space, she almost wanted to flee. "I was coming to check up on you," she said sounding like a meek child. "I have some questions for you."

"Wait," Skywalker said. "Let's level the playing field first, shall we? What's your name?"

"My what?" she stammered.

"Your name," Skywalker replied. "You obviously know who I am, but I don't know who you are. You don't have any power over me."

"I'm not trying to control you," she said. Where in the galaxy would he have gotten such an idea?

"Then tell me your name," he said.

"Jakari," she said. "Jakari Varnu."

He nodded, his eyes watchful, like he was memorizing her and maybe he was. "Alright," he said after a time. "What kind of questions?"

What kind of questions? Her head was blank. Skywalker had completely unsettled her. What had she come here to talk to him about?

 _Aycin._ She remembered. _Pacing._ "Are you tired?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Skywalker said. His voice was still cold but a different kind of cold, a more emotional one. She'd struck a nerve.

But he was tired. He had been pacing a Cube a night, after all. He wore his exhaustion well, but Jakari was a trained doctor and she could see the rings under his eyes and the slight slump of his shoulders. Even his snappish mood was probably caused by tiredness.

 _That and stress._

"That's no answer," she said. "'Fine' has many alternate meanings, many of which are the opposite of the dictionary definition."

Skywalker sighed. "I can't sleep," he admitted. "I'm not sick, I promise. This is just something that happens to me under heightened levels of stress. I'll just pace and work myself up for a couple nights then when everything's over I'll find a quiet place to crash and sleep it off. It'll be fine. It always is."

Jakari raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like an awfully unhealthy way to deal with stress."

Skywalker laughed. "You and Kix should talk."

"Kix?" she asked, wondering if he was insulting her.

"A medic in the 501st," he said. "A clone trooper. You sound just like him."

"Really," she said, she hadn't realized the clones had personalities much less names. "You really should get some rest. We have no idea how long this virus can remain dormant in a being's body. You might already be infected and if you're exhausted it's only going to get worse."

"I rarely get sick," Skywalker said, he was cautious again.

"That doesn't mean a thing." Jakari replied.

There was a long pause. Skywalker took a deep breath, held it and let it out in a sigh. "How many have gotten sick so far?" he asked.

She blinked. How was this relevant to their prior conversation? "Fifty-three," she said. "Not counting the ones who fell ill before your arrival."

"In one night," Skywalker muttered. "What about Ahsoka Tano? A female Togruta child. About this tall," he held out a hand at a little under shoulder height.

"She's fine," Jakari said. "She shows no signs of infection."

Skywalker sighed and rested his forehead against the transpisteel, he looked like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. "What about Rex?" he asked.

"Who?" she blinked.

"A Clone Captain," Skywalker said. "Only one in the legion. His number's CT-7567."

"I don't know," she stuttered. "All the clones look the same to me, but I'll try to figure out."

"When's General Kenobi and the 212th coming in?" Skywalker asked.

"In the next couple hours," Jakari answered. "We're preparing to screen them now."

Skywalker sighed again and stared at her, thinking. "Jakari," he said, his use of her first name surprised her.

"Yes?" she answered.

"Can you keep an eye on Ahsoka and Captain Rex and General Kenobi when he gets here?" he asked. "If anything changes in their health, can you tell me?"

"You're not going to be able to do anything about it," Jakari said.

"I know," Skywalker said. "But I still want to know," he breathed, deeply. "Tell you what; if you do this for me, I promise I'll try to sleep."

Jakari thought about it. "Alright," she said. "But only if you lie down a while now and at least rest your eyes."

Skywalker smiled. "Thanks, Jakari. You've got a deal."

* * *

 **I know I said that Obi-Wan was going to be in this chapter. I just used the preview from the old author's note and never bothered to check if the things I said were going to happen actually did. I'll remember that for the future.**

 **Yes, there are a lot of OCs in this story, and I still have a couple to introduce. I'll reiterate what I said in the Dramatis Personae: if you don't like OCs, don't read this story. Also, you'll want to remember Lisel Myrle (just a little hint).**

 **Aycin's name was originally "Aykin." I changed it because as I realized how much time Aycin and Jakari are going to spend with Anakin in the later parts of this story. "Aykin" sounded too much like Anakin's name, so he's Aycin now (pronounced AY-SIN).**

 **The next chapter is completely in Obi-Wan's POV. (I promise this is right this time, I checked.)**

 **Favorite, follow and review, please!**

 **P.S. I should write more stories talking about how young Anakin really is, I find them interesting. He's the age of a college kid, not many of them are looked on to save the galaxy.**

 **P.P.S. Jakari and Aycin are characters who date back to the original plans for this story from when I was in middle school (both characters harbored an intense hatred of Jedi in that version). Characters like Sarrin and Sheeri and even Zoron are new to this version.**


	14. Chapter 12

_**Chapter 12**_

 **Jedi Cruiser** _ **Negotiator**_ **, in orbit around Coruscant**

Obi-Wan stared at the holographic image of Barriss Offee. "You're sure?" he asked.

"Positive," Barriss replied. "Whatever is making the people here sick is in the water."

Obi-Wan looked to Luminara, whose hologram glowed next to her apprentice's. "Can you confirm this?"

Luminara shrugged. "So far we only have Barriss' word, but I have a few medics looking into it. It seems logical."

Obi-Wan nodded. "I'll pass this on to the Council so it can be considered."

"Have you arrived on Coruscant?" Luminara asked.

"We'll be landing momentarily," Obi-Wan said. "I'll be out of contact for a while, however. The Council order both mine and Anakin's legions along with the crews of the _Resolute_ and the _Negotiator_ quarantined on account of this sickness."

"Its water transmitted," Barriss said. "There shouldn't be any need for quarantine."

"It's still a good precaution," Luminara said to her padawan. "We still need to confirm your theory."

"My senses were clear!" Barriss argued. "I felt the sickness. It was in the water!"

"Your theory would explain the strange phantom danger sense Anakin picked up in the University Courtyard before he left Tyreea," Obi-Wan admitted. "But I couldn't feel anything, and what Anakin felt was so faint we both eventually wrote it off as exhaustion."

"That's what makes me uncertain," Luminara said. "A disease's danger sense isn't going to get stronger with time, and there's no way a padawan could be more sensitive than the Chosen One."

Barriss bristled visibly. Suddenly, Obi-Wan remembered she was only a few years younger than Anakin. So many people forgot that now that Anakin was a knight and she was still a padawan.

Luminara didn't notice. "We will be in contact, Master Kenobi," she nodded and the holograms flickered out.

Obi-Wan put a quick call through to the Council and explained Barriss' theory to them. Master Yoda nodded slowly. "Hmmm...Right, we should hope Padawan Offee is. Easier to contain then, this will be."

"Is there any news on Anakin and his men?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Fifty-seven of Skywalker's clones have gone down sick and they haven't even been in quarantine for twenty-four hours," Master Windu said. "A number of those clones were assigned to the _Resolute_ 's medbay. They weren't even on Tyreea."

Obi-Wan frowned. "That throws a wrench in Barriss' theory."

"Still worth considering, it is," Master Yoda said. "Use any information on this sickness, we can."

"What about Anakin?" Obi-Wan asked, far more worried about the answer than he cared to admit. "How are he and Ahsoka holding up?"

"We've been receiving a running list of all the sick and all those who the doctors in quarantine are worried about." Master Windu said. "So far Skywalker and Tano haven't shown up on either list, but it's still early; a lot can change."

Obi-Wan wished Master Windu wouldn't remind him.

"Going to visit the Hospital this afternoon, Master Che is," Master Yoda said. "Wish to know more, she does. Think she can help, she does."

"I have no doubt she can." Obi-Wan said. "Master Che is a brilliant healer. She patched me up after Zigoola, after all."

Master Yoda smiled. "A good point, that is."

"When will you be arriving at the Hospital?" Master Windu asked.

"We're leaving the ship in a few minutes," Obi-Wan said. "We'll be their within the half hour."

Master Yoda nodded. "Good, Master Kenobi."

* * *

 **Quarantine Division, Coruscant Standards Hospital, Coruscant**

Less than an hour later, Obi-Wan was led out of the processing room and into the large room of quarantine cells by an exhausted-looking Pantoran woman.

"It's a good thing you passed screening, Master Kenobi," the woman said. "I made a deal with a friend of yours to keep him informed on the matter, and I didn't want to have to tell him you were taken up the ICU."

"Which friend of mine?" Obi-Wan asked.

"The one who you're always on the holonet with," she said glancing at him.

 _Anakin. Of course. Who else?_ "Really?" he said. "Tell Anakin to mind his own business."

She blinked, taken aback. Obi-Wan laughed. "Relax. He'll know it's a joke."

She smiled, tightly. "I promised to keep him posted on you, the little Togruta Jedi and one of the clones in exchange for him trying to sleep."

"I take it he spent last night pacing?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Yes," she said. "How did you know?"

"I've known him a long time," Obi-Wan said. "He didn't develop that unhealthy habit overnight." he frowned. "Though the stress of the War is only making it worse."

"I can imagine," the woman said. "He's a bit young to be a galactically renowned hero, don't you think?"

Obi-Wan nodded. "That his is," he sighed, "but he's unusually talented and the galaxy needs that talent if it's going to stay out of Separatist hands."

The woman nodded. "Would you like to see him? I can't let you talk because I'm supposed to just be escorting you to your cube, but we can take the long way and walk by his."

Obi-Wan smiled. "That would be nice," he paused. "May I ask your name?"

"Jakari," she said.

"Jakari," Obi-Wan repeated. "That's a lovely name."

"Th-thank you," she stammered her blue cheeks flushing a furious shade of purple.

Obi-Wan smiled at her. "You're welcome."

They walked between the cells. Obi-Wan studied the clone troopers inside. Some were sleeping, some were playing around on datapads, some were watching holonet, but they all looked healthy, they looked like they were just sitting around doing nothing. However, the swirling cloud of danger that circled the entire level like a hawkbat reminded him of what was really going on.

He shook his head in an attempt to push the feeling away.

Anakin's Force Signature informed Obi-Wan he was near before Jakari pointed him out. The young Jedi was sprawled on the bed in his cell, eyes closed, sleeping. Obi-Wan smiled, he couldn't watch Anakin sleep without remembering the little nine-year-old he'd once known.

Anakin wasn't sleeping well, however. Obi-Wan could see the boy's eyes moving frantically under their lids; he was dreaming about something. He'd probably wake up gasping in the next half hour.

Obi-Wan wanted to stay around for a while. He couldn't go into Anakin's cell but he wanted to be there when the boy woke up, at least so Anakin could see him, but Jakari wasn't going to let him. She motioned. "We need to get you to your cell, Master Jedi. I'll get in trouble if anyone figures out I didn't take you right there."

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, his eyes lingering on Anakin's sleeping form, then nodded and followed Jakari off.

* * *

 **Hope you liked this update!**

 **Please follow, favorite and review!**

 **Emjen**


End file.
